Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(69)

He watched me, but he didn’t say anything. His eyes blazed with a mix of emotion I couldn’t tell apart, but he kept it in check as I spilled out all the things I’d been thinking for the past few days.

“You’re afraid of a relationship that will f*ck up. Every relationship I have with a man ultimately f*cks up. Do you not understand how insane that is when you put those two things together? It’s a recipe for disaster. It’s like asking a hurricane and a tsunami to hit the exact same spot at the exact same time. Chaos, West. We’d be chaos.”

“We already are, angel. We’re the kind of chaos people send armies to fight, but I think that kind of chaos is worth it.”

“You’re crazy.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I fall hard and I fall fast, and then I f*ck up. It’s like the slogan of my entire life. And you?” I paused, exhaling a shuddery, painful breath. “You could fast-track me into falling in love with you in a heartbeat. And that’s why we can’t do this anymore. That’s why it has to stop. I can’t fall in love with you and then leave you here and go back to my life because I have absolutely no doubt that the hole you would leave would always be there.”

He quickly closed the distance between us, framing my face with his hands. He swiped beneath my eyes with his thumbs and brought his face close to mine. Our noses brushed, and his slow exhale coated my lips with the taste of beer and steak and spice.

“And you think I can let you walk out of my life without leaving a hole in it? Don’t think it. I don’t think I can let you go. I can’t stop wanting you, Mia. I can’t stop needing you. Yes, it’s all scary, but I think if we want it badly enough we can do it.”

“Do you?” I whisper. “Do you want it badly enough, even knowing that the chance it’ll f*ck up is greater with me than with anyone else?”

“I don’t think it’s greater with you at all.” He pulled back and looked into my eyes. “I think the idiots you’ve dated didn’t deserve you or your time. I believe in coincidence, but I also believe they happen for a reason. And I believe the reason we met again is because of one thing.”

“Which is?”

“You were meant to be mine.”





I stared into his eyes for a long moment.

Was he right? Did coincidences happen for a reason—supporting the theory that there’s no such thing as a coincidence? I wasn’t a kooky, crazy lady who lived by psychic rules or anything like that, but I did believe that things happened for a reason.

Every time I’d broken up with someone, I’d told myself that it was because their suit of armor was so shit that it wasn’t even made of tin foil, just wet paper that’d been painted silver.

“You were meant to be mine,” West repeated, this time with conviction strong in his voice. He slid his hands down my face to my neck, his thumbs brushing my jaw, and pressed his lips against mine. “Believe it, Mia. You’re mine. It’s not something that will change. It’s not something I will let change. You. Are. Mine.”

The words thrilled me. They echoed through my mind, tugged at my heart, twisted my stomach, formed goose bumps all over my skin. Everywhere the words could touch me, they did.

“What if I don’t want to be?” I whispered, looking into his eyes.

“Decide. Either way, I’m going to convince you I’m right.” His eyes flashed darkly, in a way I was all too familiar with.

I knew the look. It was the look that told me I was about to get f*cked.

Hard.

I didn’t move. I didn’t decide.

I didn’t need to.

I already knew I wanted to be his.

I just wanted to know how badly he needed to convince me.

“Convince me,” I whispered.

He took my mouth in a kiss that was almost aggressive. I staggered back at the primal force he put behind it, and my back slammed into the wall. I narrowly missed the side table by the armchair, but if he noticed, West didn’t stop.

He dropped his hands from my neck, slid them down my body, kissing me hard, and grabbed my thighs. Before I could wrap my arms around his neck, he lifted me up, his fingertips digging into my skin, our mouths still touching, and hooked my legs over his hips. He pressed his entire body against me. The heat that seeped from his bare torso through the thin material of my dress set my heart racing.

His tongue flicked over mine at the same time he pressed his cock against me. It rubbed against my clit, and a small gasp escaped me as the desire took hold. He was flawless in his execution of every seductively rough move, from the deep kiss to the probing way his fingers moved closer to my ass. He held me effortlessly, like I weighed nothing, yet the need aching between my legs was so strong that it felt heavy.

He held my ass tight with one hand and pulled my dress up with the other. The kiss momentarily broke as I reached between us to pull it up and over my head, but the second it hit the floor, West had his lips on mine again. His free hand undid the clasp of my bra, and somehow, I didn’t know how, he slid the straps over my arms and threw it to the floor too.

My nipples hardened as they rubbed against his hot, bare chest, and I moaned when his cock pressed against my clit again. He laughed low and bit my lower lip. His teeth dragged across it as he released it and I shivered, unable to control the feeling it sent bursting through me.